The United States has approved a potential Foreign Military Sale to Ireland for FGM-148 Javelin missiles and Lightweight Command Launch Units, valued at an estimated $46 million.
According to the Defence Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA), the sale covers thirty-six Lightweight Command Launch Units (LwCLUs) to be added to a previously implemented agreement, which originally included forty-four FGM-148 Javelin missiles.
The original case, valued at $8.7 million, did not require congressional notification at the time. The combined package now includes forty-four missiles and thirty-six launch units.
In addition to the missiles and launchers, the sale will include missile containers, Enhanced Producibility Basic Skills Trainers (EPBST), training, technical assistance, and other elements of logistics and programme support.
The U.S. State Department said the proposed sale “will support the foreign policy and national security of the United States by improving the security and capabilities of Ireland to support its participation in peacekeeping missions with the United Nations and NATO’s Partnership for Peace programme.”
It added that the deal would “enhance Ireland’s capability to build its long-term defence capacity to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity to meet its national defence requirements.” The DSCA noted that Ireland is expected to absorb the equipment with no difficulty.
The principal contractors for the sale are the Javelin Joint Venture between Lockheed Martin in Orlando, Florida, and RTX Corporation in Tucson, Arizona. The U.S. Government stated that no offset agreements have been proposed at this stage, but any such arrangements would be negotiated directly between Ireland and the contractors.
The DSCA confirmed that “implementation of this proposed sale will not require the assignment of any additional U.S. Government or contractor representatives to Ireland,” and that “there will be no adverse impact on U.S. defence readiness as a result of this proposed sale.”
The $46 million figure represents the highest estimated cost, and the final value will depend on requirements and contractual agreements.
Good to see Ireland finally starting to take defence somewhat seriously. I still can’t get over the figures in some of these contracts. Javelin missiles reportedly cost around $250k, with the launch units costing the same again. But the per combined missile / launch unit this contract is over $1m per unit.
I note that it includes training, logistics and technical support; but the figures seem wildly disproportionate. I’m guessing these are the high mark-up areas that defence companies are using to stack their profits. I wonder how these support costs scale relative to the number of units purchased – probably varies by system. But it does beg the question as to whether fewer systems with more units per system, could help increase defence budget efficiency.
NLAW obviously doesn’t have quite the same capabilities as Javelin, and I’m glad that the UK has both, but it seems to be a far more cost effective system overall. I’m surprised it hasn’t seen more orders by budget conscious militaries, especially given it’s lauded performance in Ukraine.
You do realise that this order is just a replenishment and upgrade order for the DF, the Javelin has been in service for years at this point given we were one of the first users of it.
Why do Ireland need Javelin anti-tank missiles? Are they planning to invade Ulster or are they afraid we might invade them? Surely they would be better off prioritising assets that can police their area of economic interest.
The DF has always had ATGM systems, this is nothing new just a replacement for end of life equipment. They are deployed on the UN missions
Seems a bit illogical: any army with tanks modern enough to require a Javelin are going to be too much of a political headache to shoot back at anyway. As the Irish found out in Lebanon last year.
Hasn’t stopped the DF and IDF and its surrogates trading fire in the past, though that was with the Panards in service. Like I said this is nothing new in service just restocking, interesting timing though if the Jaguar order happens.
Javelin is very versatile, it can do anti ship in littorals and we often used it to take out bunkers or even machine gun positions in Afghanistan.
It was a really expensive way to do this but often cheaper than getting a Tonka to fly across the country to drop a Paveway.
And a lot faster than calling up air support….with the risk that the hostiles may have Foxtrot Oscar’d by the time Harrier or Tonka put in an appearance.
If you are in a life or death fight – living is more important than the cost of expended munitions in the moment. If you are dead you won’t be able to put the Javelin back into stores….
But as a neutral country, their only confrontational activity is as a UN peacekeeping force, and they typically retreat in the face of hostility.
No the DF doesn’t and has exchanged fire more than once on deployments.
I wouldn’t trust the yanks enough to buy anything at all from them
Well they are already in service so it’s not a huge surprise, on the other hand, the US might be out of the running for the Radar buy despite earlier reports, which is a hell of a lot more than just this replenishment buy.
Parts of the Javelin missile are made in Ireland. Used to work in an office next door to the Raytheon factory. They would go nuts and call the police if we ever parked in their car park.
For future internal use!!
Well yeah, they are used in training in the Glen.